Wheeling, W. Va. – When the Wheeling University Men's Lacrosse program was re–established in 2020, they had to rebuild the culture from the ground up. Over the past four years, the team has been growing and learning together and it came together into a historic season for the team in 2024. They made the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) playoffs for the first time since 2018 and improved their win total for the fourth season in a row.
The year would start out strong for the Cardinals as they headed to a neutral site game against Post University at the USA Lacrosse facility. Right from the get-go, the Cardinals showed how lethal their offense could be, picking up a 15-11 win. They came back for their home opener and continued that offensive success, picking up a 20-1 win over Holy Family to move to 2-0 for the first time since that 2018 season. However, they would drop their final three beginning of the year non-conference games and entered GMAC play sitting 2-3. They would pick up their first GMAC win against Thomas More on March 23rd, and after a loss to Mercyhurst they sat at 1-4 in conference.
That is when they would hit their stride and make a push for their first GMAC Tournament spot since 2018. They started the run with an 18-7 win over Thomas More and followed that with a 21-20 win over Malone to move to 3-4. They would honor their seniors in their final non-conference game of the season against Virginia State with a 27-6 win and entered the final game of the season needing a win to clinch the #5 seed in the tournament. They did just that, beating Davis & Elkins 24-6 and earning a road trip to North Canton, Ohio for the first-round action. It was a tough battle, with the two teams heading to overtime, but in the end the Cardinals would fall 11-10, bringing their playoff run to an end.
The offense was the driving force for the team's success this season, and leading the way was senior Mike Andersson. Andersson led the GMAC with 53 goals and added 11 assists for 64 points in 14 games played. He was one goal short of tying his single-season goal record while tying his single-season points record. He scored three or more goals in 10 of his 14 games played this season and rounded out the regular season with his biggest stretch, scoring 15 goals in the final two regular season games. Andersson wrote his name in program history, breaking the all-time goal scoring record with 161 career goals, while he earned Second Team All-GMAC honors.
The Cardinals had multiple All-GMAC selections for the first time since 2018, and the second Cardinal to earn honors was goalkeeper Austin Hall. Hall was honored with Second Team All-GMAC honors, making 211 saves on 338 shots faced for a .543 save percentage. He kept the Cardinals in games throughout the season, and finished second in the GMAC in saves this season. Behind Andersson on offense Ty Taylor and Jacob Knippel each also wrote their names in program history. Both players reached the 100 career point mark during the season, marking the first three 100-point scorers since the 2018 season. Taylor would lead the team with 30 assists this season and fell just three points shy of his career high with 61 points.
The Wheeling University Men's Lacrosse team now heads into the off-season as they look to get back to the GMAC tournament in 2025.
